April went a lot better than March, in terms of reading and blogging. Globally April was shit ofc. I got more used to being at home, and very good at avoiding the news. We’re staying at home in Romania, but we’ve been pretty lucky so far.

Books read

I started off with The Magpie Lord by KJ Charles, listening to the entire audiobook in one day. It was intense. Also, made me blush so much, I think I will read the rest on kindle. Hot romance with a dark mystery.

After starting it for the 4th time, I finally read Jhereg by Steven Brust I wasn’t very into it. But at least it was short.

The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, which I’d started in March, was every sweet and wholesome as advertised.

For book club, I read The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E Harrow and fell in love with the careful prose and fairytale-like feeling of it.

On a lazy Sunday afternoon, I discovered the weird way horror can be comforting, when I read the beautifully illustrated Snow, Glass Apples, by Neil Gaiman and Colleen Doran. I loved this dark Snow White retelling.

I’d gotten Junkyard Cats by Faith Hunter as an audible free original. Wasn’t really for me, not enough cats, too much gun-talk.

Comfort reads were what I was going for this month, so I reread Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett. I find Death a very soothing, friendly character.

With All These Worlds, I finished the Bobiverse trilogy, by Dennis E Taylor. I didn’t really like the final volume that much, it felt too much like a trilogy ending, rather than a complete book.

Currently, I’m listening to Howl’s Moving Castle by Dianna Wynne Jones. Amazed I hadn’t listened to it before, it is very sweet.

I’ve got an ARC for Swashbuckling Cats, three stories in so far and I love it. It has enough cats and enough pirates, and I like how different the stories have been so far.

Blog posts

I started a series of mini-reviews to catch. My march slump had let me very behind.

4 Shortish-Reviews of Beautiful Books: 

• The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold
• The Realm of Ash by Tasha Suri
• The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow
• Snow, Glass, Apples by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Colleen Doran

4 Shortish reviews of sci-fi books:

• The Calculating Stars By Mary Robinette Kowal
• The Fated Sky by Mary Robinette Kowal
• The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
• All These Worlds by Dennis E Taylor (Bobiverse book 3)

4 Shortish reviews of books with tough people:

• Jhereg by Steven Brust
• Junkyard Cats by Faith Hunter
• Tenebre: Labirintul by Daniel Timariu
• The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday by Saad Z. Hossain

Other blog posts:

Short read-what-you-already-own update & looking for recs of 2020 books

I did really well with reading what I own, so now I’m going to shop for books. I’m really hoping to avoid amazon, so the first step I’ve written my local indie bookseller. Hope they can at least get me 2-3 books off my list.

Top Ten Tuesday posts:

• Books I Enjoyed But Rarely Talk About
• Book Titles that would make great band names
• Books I wish I’d read while younger

Other wrap-ups: January, February, March

For May I’ve signed up for Wyrd and Wonder, a month-long event celebrating fantasy. Check it out, and join the fun!

This monthly wrap up is linked up at  @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction.